Widow learns of soldier’s death via Facebook

Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Brown, was killed April 3 in Afghanistan after he died of wounds suffered in an IED attack.

Unfortunately, SSG Brown’s wife didn’t learn of his death through the military’s casualty notification process. Ariell Taylor-Brown found out her husband Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown was killed through Facebook after another soldier in his platoon posted a message on her Facebook page that there was an emergency.

The Facebook message came hours before casualty notification officers with the Army arrived at her home.

According to NBC4:
"I was told via Facebook," said Taylor-Brown. "It was a girl in his platoon. She wrote to me and told me to call her immediately," Taylor-Brown said.

Taylor-Brown called her, and the soldier told her of the death. Taylor-Brown, who has two children and is pregnant with the couple’s third was at home alone with the kids.

"She told me over the phone, right in front of my kids and I completely had a meltdown. She wasn’t supposed to but I guess she took it on her own power to do it," she said.
Taylor-Brown told NBC4, “"It was a horrible way for me to find out. She didn’t even give me a chance. I could have been driving and I could have harmed myself learning this.”